Talking Improbably Yours with Maddie Dawson - treasure hunts, Vikings, ravens, grandmothers & more

It’s no secret that I adore Maddie Dawson’s books — and if you haven’t read them, I suggest you rectify that immediately. We met through each other’s books, actually — we’d read each other’s work, and we knew before we ever met that we were going to be friends. Then we finally met once in person and the deal was sealed. Even though we live on opposite sides of the country, we talk regularly and read early drafts for each other.

So it’s not at all surprising that we had a ton of fun with this interview. We talked about the possibility that Flynn, the Viking in the story might possibly have been inspired by my very own Viking. We discussed ravens, grandmothers, and the idea that spawned Improbably Yours (an old, falling apart, grieving house rather than a character!)

Both audio and video are posted here so you can choose your favourite format! I hope you enjoy!

The Magic of Found Objects with Authors Kerry Anne King and Maddie Dawson

Last week, I got to sit down for a good chat with bestselling author Maddie Dawson about her fantastic, feel good new novel, THE MAGIC OF FOUND OBJECTS. I adore this book, as I do everything Maddie, and it's available EARLY for you to read on First Reads if you're a Prime Reads subscriber. We also talked about Law of Attraction, gnomes, real life magic, and how Maddie came to marry a much younger man.

Real Life Meets Magic: Women's Fiction with Magical Elements

On women’s fiction day, I got together with Barbara Davis, Willa Reece, Maddie Dawson, and Kim Neville, all fabulous authors who write books about strong women on growth journeys—with a little magic along the way. We discussed our books and why we chose to include elements of magic, plus our thoughts about the difference between women’s fiction and fantasy and so much more. I seriously want to be able to meet with these women once a week for dinner and drinks. They are all so amazing and fun!

Author Hangout with Christine Nolfi

I had this idea that it would be super fun to get Christine in a zoom room and then stream our conversation life to Facebook. It was a brilliant idea (I still believe this.) But then Tech glitches happened. We were way late by the time zoom decided to stream. Some of our loyal and devoted fans never did get to join us, but Christine and I still had a blast with our Facebook Live author hang out, and now you can be in on it too, after the fact! I hope you enjoy! We got into some interesting territory around tapping into the collective unconscious, whether we manifest life events by what we write in books, and where ideas come from.

I’d love it if you’d share your reactions and tell us what you think!

Check out Christine’s new release - The Road She Left Behind.

Crushed by guilt over the car accident that killed her father and sister, and torn apart by her mother’s resentment, Darcy Goodridge fled her family estate eight years ago and hasn’t looked back. Now an unexpected phone call threatens to upend what little serenity she’s found. Her nephew, Emerson, who was just a baby when his mother died, has gone missing. Darcy must return home and face her past in order to save him.

Once back in Ohio, Darcy realizes there’s more to Emerson’s disappearance—and to the sudden retirement of her mother, Rosalind—than meets the eye. As she works to make inroads with Rosalind, Darcy begins to unravel a decades-old secret that devastated her family and forced a wedge between her and Michael Varano, the man she left heartbroken when she vanished after the funeral. After carrying the scars of that fateful night for almost a decade, Darcy is determined to find closure, healing, and maybe even love where she lost them all in the first place—right back home where she belongs.

Ten Thankful Things - by Virginia Franken

Today's guest is a brilliantly funny and insightful author friend who has the sort of attitude toward life I am always seeking and falling short of. Seriously. As you'll read below, she has the capacity to be thankful for dental pain. Yes, you read that correctly. DENTAL PAIN. GRATEFUL FOR. Maybe she'll inspire you to make a daily gratitude list of your own. (You'll probably also want to read her delightful novel, Life After Coffee.)

Virginia Franken was born and raised in the United Kingdom. She currently lives in suburban Los Angeles with two kids, a dog, an overweight goldfish, and one bearded dude, in a house that’s just a little too small to fit everyone in comfortably. She gets most of her writing done when she should be sleeping. Life After Coffee is her first novel.

Today's Ten

I found planet earth a bit of a difficult place to be last year so to pep 2017 up a little, I thought I’d try and turn my perception around by writing about some of the things that WERE working out.

So in 2017 I’m writing down ten things every day that I’m grateful for.

Here are today’s TEN:

1.     Dental pain. That’s right, I’m grateful for the dental pain I’m currently experiencing. I had braces fitted a few months ago and they are THE WORST. According to my dentist, my crappy British teeth are all misaligned and sunken in like an old horse so unless I wanted to be sucking on grey gruel at the age of 57, braces are needed. They’ve been on for months and nothing’s happened. My teeth appear to have roots of cement. However, she recently put a bunch of springs in there, like I’m some kind of defective clock, but now those suckers are shifting…. Finally. Hence the pain. And hence the gratitude. More pain = fixed teeth.

2.     Change. I’m grateful for change. Most people hate change as is the way of the human, but I like it. Change can be rough (see 2016) but it can also be transformative – which of course is all kind of tied up the in the word CHANGE. In the 1900s teenaged girls were dying after getting burned in cotton factories with no fire escapes and crap, but now they have iPhones and medication to help them with their acne. The world today always seems like it’s a bit useless. But really, stuff is changing and mostly for the better.

3.     I wore a black bra to work under a pale pink shirt today. I didn’t realize this would be an issue until I saw it in the mirror in the bathrooms. And why is this on the gratitude list? Because I realized I didn’t care… Because I’m almost 40 and I don’t care if people are judging me for a poor choice of dark-colored bra. I just don’t.

4.     I’ve been watching with a kind of sad caution recently as my eight-year-old turns from child to tween before my very eyes. It’s cool but also (like every parent on the planet) I wonder where the time went, and most of all I wonder if I spent it in the right way. Again, like many parents I work full-time and I often feel like I missed a good chunk of my eldest’s childhood. I’ve been off and on glum recently that I’ve missed it. It’s gone. And I was too busy working for the man to really dive in appreciate it. However, this weekend at the play place filled with toddlers and train sets and stickle bricks and princess costumes he played like a toddler too. Except minus the black tantrums he used to throw when he was three. All in all, it’s all good. He’s still a little boy. Even though he’s a big little boy. 

5.     The pizza guy rang the door bell this evening and the explosion of activity that went off in the house at the sound of the doorbell actually seemed hilarious instead of highly stressful like normal. The dog yapping, eldest child yapping too, the youngest screaming “POLICE!”. Instead of alarmed, I could see it how the pizza guy must see it and I was mildly amused. 

6.     I dyed my own hair today and managed to cover the grey without ending up looking like a tabby cat in mourning. My sister is a color technician at a fancy hair salon in London so the fact that I’m coloring my own hair is a straight up betrayal of blood. However. It worked out fine. Birds did not fall from the trees. I was not struck down by the angry zap of the hair goddess straighteners in the sky. It was fine. I covered the grey and it looked ok and cost about 1/8 of the price of the salon situation. Just sayin’…

7.     Steam-free mirrors. I don’t have steam-free mirrors and every morning when I have to wipe a little hole within the steam cloud to put on my makeup I think, hmph. However. I know that some people in this fine world do have steam-free mirrors (I’ve been told this happens in hotels in Japan) and for them I’m grateful for the saved convenience. Also my great grandchildren will probably have steam-free mirrors as a matter of course so I’m grateful on their behalf too.

8.     It’s been cold. I love a bit of cold. Chilly at night, putting on an extra blanket, snuggling between icy sheets wearing long sleeve pajamas. And the reasons I love the cold so much are A. It makes me nostalgic for my English boarding school childhood where we would wake up with ice on the inside of the windows, Jane Eyre style - I’m not kidding - and B. It’s such a blessed contrast to the roaring heat of the summer that attacks the valleys of Los Angeles at the first hint of the June. Yay global warming (not not not not not.)

9.     Eldest child is hot on the case for me to buy him seaweed. He traded some at school for a pack of Fritos and now he’s mad for the green stuff. I love that my eight-year-old is even aware that seaweed can be eaten. I lived on an English diet of boiled potatoes and chicken till I was about 18 and I didn’t even eat an avocado till I was about 28. Progress people. The human race is progressing.

10.  Us LA folks get very excited about rain and it’s been raining a lot here recently. I should really live in Seattle or really anywhere other than LA as too much sun makes me miserable and itchy. But anyway – today the clouds were sitting halfway down the mountain like a bunch of smug cotton balls and I swear it was like Buddha had farted and wrapped it up in a puff of smoke and stuck it on the hillside. The whole thing was transcendent.

What everyday transcendent experience did you have today?

Want to hang out more with Virginia? You can find her here:

Blog: http://www.virginiafranken.com

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